Sure and what Josh meant by that is he WANTS to be a rando rider, but also has a day job, and doesn’t get out for them big mile weekends. I think it’s great and there’s a sold out dirt fondo this weekend. To the unracing part, see my recent posts on riding MTB in Sedona…most fun since the last time I rode MTB.

Calm your mustaches. All I meant was that the rando flavor is giving fixie a run for its money to be the new darling of bike fashion. But I can get behind this trend—smooth riding, function-forward bikes with brakes and lights and baskets and bells, etc. Then I put a snarky box around it, because someone was gonna name it. We like boxes. Fixie, rando, crit, unracer, weight weenie, roadie, etc.

Personally, I like the box “adventure bike” because when I need to I can put 2.1” knobbies and luggage on it and get way, way off the asphalt. Despite the weight it moves just fine with those Hetres, which do surprisingly well on most surfaces. Cornering on gravel, not so much…

I gotta name drop tho: Ben @ Back Alley is getting deep into this scene, and has been an integral part of this bike’s development—all winter we talked dyno hubs, bags, racks, etc., most of which ended up on my bike. He just finished the Oregon Outback in 3 days on a Surly Cross Check setup very simliar to my Rawland. He should have pics up on his blog real soon now, right Ben? http://www.backalleybikerepair.com/back-alley-blog/